Riots Erupt in Kenya
Riots erupted Tuesday in the streets of Nairobi, Kenya, during a rally against alleged police shootings, reports the BBC. Hundreds of students held up banners and shouted slogans protesting the alleged killings of a student and two human rights activists at the hands of Kenyan police. Some protesters threw stones and looted shops during the unrest, and police sprayed tear gas to break up the crowds. Last Thursday, two human rights activists, Oscar Kamau Kingara and John Paul Oulo, were shot and killed in their cars. Their murders didn’t come too long after a spokesman for the government charged that their group was assisting a gang. Police have denied they had anything to do with the killings of the activists. A riot broke out after the murders resulted in a student protester being shot dead. Three officers were arrested following that incident. “It is extremely troubling when those working to defend human rights in Kenya can be assassinated in broad daylight in the middle of Nairobi,” United Nations investigator Philip Alston told the BBC. Alston was behind last year’s report, which accused the nation’s police force of operating death squads, reports the news service. Another report by the Oscar Foundation Free Legal Aid Clinic released last year alleges that 8,040 young people in the country have been killed since 2002 during the police battle with a criminal gang.

Taiwan to Cut Aid to Haiti

Taiwan’s government has announced that it will be cutting the amount of rice aid it usually provides Haiti, due to a bad harvest, reports the BBC. This year, the Asian nation can only afford to give 200 tons of stock rice per shipment. In 2007, Taiwan donated 5,000 tons of rice to Haiti and about 9,600 tons last year.

TAGS: haiti, Kenya violence, riots, Taiwan

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